Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-06-15
and have no doubt they said: "What {

beautiful day this IS What Sm0Otn sea
What bright sky this is How delight
full is sailing in this boat and as for thu
waves under the keel of the boat, why they
only make the motion of our little boat the
more delightful" But when the winds
| swept down, and the sea was tossed int
| wfath, then they found that following
Christ was not smooth sailing. So you have
foundlit. : SO have found it. Did you evel
notice the end of the life of the apostles o.
Jesus Christ You would say if ever mer
| ought to have had a smooth life, a smooth
departure, then those men, the deciples Of
Jesus Christ, ought to have had such a de
parture and such life.
st. James lost his head. St. Philip was
hung to death on pillar. st. Matthew hac
his life dashed out with halbert. St.
Mark was dragged to death through the
death with a fuller's club. St. Thomas was
struck through with spear. They did not
| find following Christ smooth sailing. Oh,
| how they were all tossed in the tempest
John Huss in the fire; Hugh McKail in the
hour of martyrdom; the Albigenses, the
tWaldenses, the Scotch Convenanters did
| they find it smooth sailing?
But why go 10 history when I can come
into this audience to-day and find score Of
illustrations of the truth on this subject
That young man in the store trying to serve
God, while his employer SCOTS at Christi
| anlty; the young men in the same store
| antagonistic to the Christian religion teas.
| ing him, tormenting him about his religion,
| trying to get him mad. They succeed in
getting him mad, saying "You' re a pretty
Christian" Does this young man find it
| smooth-sailing when he tries to follow
Christ? Here is a Christian girl. Hel
father despises the Christian religion hel
mother despises the Christian religion hel
brothers and sisters scoff at the Christian
religion she can hardly find a quiet place
| in which to say her prayers. Did she find
it smooth sailing when she tried to follow
Jesus Christ? Oh, no all who would live
| the life of the Christian religion must suffer
| persecution if you do not find it in one
way you will get it in another way.
The question was asked "Who arc
those nearest the throne?'' and the answe1
came back : "These are they who came up
out of great acknowledgements failing, as
the original has it; great failing, great
pounding-and had their robes washed and
made white in the blood of the Lamb. p
Oh, do not be disheartened Oh, child Of
God take courage. You are in glorious
companionship. God will see you through
all these trials, and He will deliver you.
My subject also impresses me with the
fact that good people sometimes get very
much frightened. t1t
In the tones of these disciples as they
rushed into the back part of the boat, find
they are frightened almost to death. They
say, 'Master, carest thou not that we per
ish? ?'' They had no reason to be fright.
ened, for Christ was in the boat I suppose
if we had been there we would have tsen
just as much affrightened. Perhaps more.
In all ages very good people get very
much affrightened. 1t is often so in our
day, and men say, s'Why, look at the bad
lectures look at the spiritualistic societies;
look at the various errors going over the
Church of God we are going to founder
the Church is going to perish she is going
down." Oh, how many good people are
afrightened by iniquity in our day, and
think the Church of Jesus Christ is going
to be overthrown, and are just as much af-
frightened as were the disciples of my text.
Don't worry, don't fret, as though iniquity
were going to triumph over righteousness.
A lion goes into cavern to sleep. He
lies down, with his shaggy name covering
the paws. Meanwhile the spiders spin a
say: "We have captured him." Gossamer
thread after gossamer thread is spun until
the whole front of the cavern is covered
with the spiders web, and the spiders say:
"The lion is done; the lion is fast.'' After
awhile the lion has got through sleeping;
he rouses himself, he shakes his name, he
walks out into the sunlight; he does not
even know the spiders web is spun, and
with his voice he shakes the mountains.
So men come spinning their sophistries
and skepticism about Jesus Christ; He
seems to be sleeping. They say: "We have
captured the Lord; He will never come
forth again upon the nation; Christ is cap
tured forever. His religion will never make
any conquest among men," But after
awhile the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will
rouse himself and come forth to shake
nightly the nations. What's SPIDERS
web to the aroused lion? Give truth and
error a fair grapple, and truth will come off
victor.
But there are great many good people
who get affrightened in other respects; they
are affrightened in our day about revivals.
They say: ooh! this is a strong religious
gale; we are afraid the Church of God is go
ing to be upset, and there are going to be
a great many people brought into the church
that are going to be of no use to it;'' and
they are affrightened whenever they see a
revival taking hold Of the churches.
As though a ship captain with five thou
sand bushels of wheat for cargo should
say some day coming upon deck: 'Throw
overheard all cargo; and the sailors should
say, "Why, captain, what do you mean?
Throw over all the cargo?" "Oh,' says the
captain, eve have peck of chaff that has
got into this five thousand bushels of wheat
and the only way to get rid of the chaf is
to throw all the wheat overheard" Now,
that is great deal wiser than the talk of a
great many Christians who want to throw
overheard all the thousands and tens of
thousands of souls who are the subjects OF
revivals. Throw all overheard because they
are brought into the kingdom of God
through great revivals, because there is a
peck of chaff, a quart of chaff, pint OF
chaffl say, let them stay until the Last
Day; the Lord will divide the chaff from the
wheat.
| Do not be afraid of great revival.
| Oh, that these gales from heaven might
sweep through all cur churehesi Oh, foI
such days as Richard Baxter saw in Eng.
land and Robert McCheyne saw in Dundee
| Oh, for such days as Jonathan Edwards saw
in Northampton! I have often heard my
father tell of the fact that in the early part
of this century revival broke out at Somer-
vile, N. j., and some people were very
much agitated about it. They said: ooh,
you are going to bring too many people in-
to the church at once; and they sent down
to New Brunswick to get John Livingston
to stop the revival.
Well, there was no better soul in all the
world than John Livingston. He went and
looked at the revival; they wanted him to
stop it. He stood in the pulpit on the Sab
bath and looked over the solemn auditory,
and he said: "This, brethren, is in reality
the work of God; beware how you try tt
stop it, And he was an old man, leaning
heavily on his staff-a very old man. And
he lifted that staff and took hold Of the
small end of the staff, and began to let ii
fall very slowly through, between the fing'
er and the thumb, and he said: ooh, thou
impenitent, thou art falling now-falling
away from life, falling away from peace
and heaven, falling as certainlyas that cane
is falling through my hand-falling certain
ly, though perhaps falling slowly" Anc
the cane kept on falling through John Llv
ingston's hand. The religious emotion IL
| +Lo o-J;o,oo x,,c ouorpouarinr and mnr